Attitude Check

I re-read my last post, and I am still scared about the whole thing but I have to accept that there is only so much I can do. And I have done a lot. I have pulled together a bunch of people and put together a damn fine show and what should be a damn fine party. I have been outstandingly well organized. This IS a great cause.

I will dedicate the next week to selling as many tickets as I can. Even if I have to cold call every person in Gen’s phone book.

And no matter how this all turns out, I will be very proud of what I have accomplished.

Scared sh*tless

I am officially panicking.

We are three weeks away from the fundraiser and as of this writing we have sold 6 tickets. Fuck fuck fuckitty fuck fuck fuck.

So many people have come forward and offered there help Money and time. We have some great auction items and we have Gloria Martin from CHFI as our MC. A bunch of people have promised that they will buy tickets... I hope they do soon.

This is a really good cause, and It will be a damn fine party. Please give.

There is of course another source of stress. I am waiting to be laid off. At first I was scared that I would loose my job. Now I am scared that I won’t.

Why? I know that the office will be a butt ugly place to be very shortly. I’m just praying that my pink slip is waiting on Monday.

My life is a soap opera.

Actually my life is just odd…

Last Friday my good friend and Boss (Pete) turned in his resignation. I haven’t been able to write about it till now. Probably because, like the rest of Pete’s staff I have been stunned in to silence.

I have theories about why Pete has left, all of it is conjecture and so it’s not appropriate to mention here. What is appropriate to mention here is that Pete is without a doubt the best Boss I have ever had. He created an environment of camaraderie and openness. His door was always open, he was always ready to help you and always happy to do so. I have no doubt that he will find new and better things to work on next.

It blows that he’s not going to be my boss any more.

In other “news of the weird”, Liam Neeson’s “people” sent me an email yesterday. And no - they were not telling me to stop stalking their client.

It seems that the big man got the letter that I sent about Mrs K’s fundraiser and was moved to make a donation.

Score for Team K.

I hope this is sign of things to come. And I hope it’s a big cheque.

Bummed

I am in a real funk right now. I can’t say why, not yet anyway. It is possible I am in a funk for no reason, I wont know for another month or so.

Hate this.

An outing with Mrs K

In my quest to organize the fundraiser for Mrs K. I realised that we would have to have the ability to do credit card transactions. –Long story short I had to get on one of Mrs K’s accounts as a signer. This required Mrs K and my self going to the bank.

We were supposed to do this last week but Mrs K was not feeling well and it was freeking freezing. We rescheduled for yesterday and fortunately it was much milder out.

I arrived at Mrs K’s house yesterday and her personal care worker (J) and I bundled her on her “outside” wheelchair, dressed her in her warm clothes, scarf, warm sheepskin mittens, and wrapped her legs in a fleece blanket and we were off.

The bank was only a few blocks away from the house so we walked, J and I taking turns pushing the wheel chair up the hill to the bank.

A few things stuck me about our trip. One was the fact that when someone cannot move they are generally much colder then you or I would be moving around. Hence Mrs K. looked for all the world like a wheelchair-bound artic explorer for a three block trip to the bank. The other thing was that I never really paid attention to how many big cracks and bumps there are on Toronto’s streets and sidewalks. But every time the wheelchair bounced and rattled over another big crack I had to wince in sympathy for Mrs K.

Our business at the back was pretty fast and Mrs K was feeling up to going to Shoppers Drug mart for some shopping. So off we went to shoppers slowly trolling the isles while Mrs K directed us to get stuff (Mostly candy) off the shelves. J and I joked about going out for drinks after our adventure. As we left Shoppers Mrs K asked us “so are we going for drinks?” We found a Pub near by, Mrs K. had a glass of wine and J and I had a beer. J and I managed to make Mrs K laugh so hard she couldn’t drink her wine.

I felt absurdly good sitting there in that pub. We had managed to take Mrs K for a nice outing. She got to go shopping, and she got to go out for a glass of wine. Pretty awesome accomplishments for someone who is in the advanced stages of ALS.

Not even the skunk that let one rip right next to the house last night could dampen my mood.

Life if good.

Change Is In The Air

I was feeling a tad melancholy yesterday so I called my friends Timothy and Shelly. Talking to them is always a pickup, but it was particularly a pickup yesterday.

Timothy is a harp maker and musician. He recently went on a trip to Paris (Oui, France) to a major music industry convention- the long and the short of it is that he has walked away with one signed deal and another five or six in the works.

WAY TO GO TIMOTHY!!!!!

This is good on so many levels, its great for Timothy, who is amazingly talented and really deserves a shot at the big time. It also means that Timothy’s next album is paid-for which means that Ross will be getting some much needed business.

Timothy and Shelly have been sweating a bit lately. Because the Canadian Dollar has been so strong their American harp sales have been hurting. This is going to help them out a lot.

This will also give Ross a bit more exposure, and I’m sure that he will get some business out of this.

I think Change is in the air for me too.

There has been a very “layoffs are coming” vibe at work of late. Its made me take stock of my situation and look at my options. – Don’t Worry Pete I’m not thinking of leaving- (And I was assured this morning that layoffs have been avoided)

But I realize that I have a rather outstanding Credit card bill that I am not happy about. So I’ve decided to tighten the old belt – start brown bagging it to work and make a few sacrifices to get the bills under control.

I also have a bunch of stuff that I don’t have any use for. SO my goal for this Sunday is to catalogue and digitally photograph all of my darkroom crap. Over the course of next week I will research items on the web and the next weekend start posting stuff on ebay.

Perhaps I will even try to get rid of that 2000P printer.

Pete also came up with an interesting idea. He said I should start a Photo Blog. That will do two very cool things. 1. It will be a showcase for my work. 2. It will inspire me to go out and shoot more. He’s even offered to loan me an old digital camera and to host the blog.

Occasionally I have very cool friends